Developer Workstation

This topic is meant to help you set up your Development workstation so that you can start setting up your Building Blocks projects and get developing quickly.

Goals

Setup Your IDE and Supporting Tools

Setup Debugging

Start a Gradle-based Project

Build and Deploy

Setup your IDE and Supporting Tools

NOTE: As with all software there are potential variations between IDE versions - and definitely between IDE vendors. This topic provides the highlights. Additional information for each IDE will be available in the vendor provided IDE documentation.

IDE

Installing and Configuring Eclipse

Eclipse is a popular and freely available Integrated development environment that may be used for Blackboard extension development. Eclipse has many available versions and many plugins that may enhance the software development experience. See the below Optional Downloads for a purpose built Eclipse. This section will cover the download and initial setup of your Eclipse environment. Visit the Eclipse download site and download the Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers. This version provides the minimal tools necessary for Java web application development. After you have downloaded Eclipse expand the archive and start the IDE. Once you have started the IDE check for updates by clicking Help>Check for Updates. The updater will run and provide updates for installation if there are any available. Based on your environment and development goals, you might consider adding additional tools for code repository management. Eclipse (depending on the version downloaded) includes repository tools for CVS and GIT. If you, or projects you contribute to, use SVN you may download one of the popular SVN plugins such as Subversive. There is a plugin available for GIT as well. Eclipse plugins are easily discovered via web searches or using Help>Eclipse Marketplace or Help>Install New Software. Instructions for use and setup for these plugins are a web search away. Of course you may also use non-integrated command line or desktop tools of your choice. Finally, whether new to Learn extension development or not, you may find the Blackboard Plugin for Eclipse by Wiley Fuller useful. It provides a form based wizard for setting up and one-click deployment to your Learn development server.

Installing and Configuring NetBeans

NetBeans is a popular and freely available Integrated Development Environment. As with Eclipse, NetBeans also provides a comprehensive development environment and many supporting plugins, but lacks the Learn specific plugin support as possible in Eclipse. Go to the NetBeans download site and download the Java EE (or All) Bundle. The NetBeans Java EE Bundle includes support SVN and GIT code repository access. Instructions for use and setup are a web search away. Of course you may also use non-integrated command line or desktop tools of your choice. Additional plugins for NetBeans are found under Tools>Plugins.

Alternatively use the 'Tools>Plugins' action from the NetBeans IDE main menu.

Gradle and Maven

Gradle is a command line build environment similar to Ant with several improvements. Maven provides Learn specific build libraries. Both facilitate quickly ramping up a project though neither are a requirement to get started. Comprehensive usage of Maven or Gradle are beyond the scope of this documentation, however this document provides cursory instruction for using Gradle. For more comprehensive information about Gradle usage and configuration, visit the Gradle documentation site athttp://www.gradle.org/documentation. Additional information for using Maven in your Learn extension development cycle is in the Getting Started with Maven Developer Resource topic. Both Eclipse and NetBeans support project development using Maven and Gradle. Both require plugins to be installed. You can check if they are installed by viewing the list of installed plugins:

Maven

Eclipse: Installed in Bundle. Help>Install New Software, uncheck the hide installed checkbox and type Maven in the search box or click the "What is already installed?" link.

NetBeans: Installed in Bundle. Tools>Plugins, select Available Plugins, and enter Maven in the search field.

Gradle

Eclipse: Gradle Plugin. Pivital provides a plugin for the Gradle environment which generates Eclipse projects from the gradle build file.

NetBeans: Plugin Available. Tools>Plugins, select Available Plugins, enter Gradle in the search field, check the install box and then click the Install Button and follow presented instructions. This plugin allows the opening of of a Gradle project as a project in NetBeans.

Blackboard Starting-Block

DO NOT INSTALL THE STARTING BLOCK ON A PRODUCTION SYSTEM OR ANY SYSTEM ACCESSIBLE VIA THE PUBLIC INTERNET. Installing the starting block on a production system presents a security risk.

Blackboard distributes a Building Block which facilitates the deployment of Building Blocks and Reports. The latest version is available via a link at the bottom of this page. To test the Starting Block you may load the help page:

NetBeans

Optional Downloads

The Building Block Starting-Block for rapid deployment of building blocks in development. DO NOT INSTALL ON A PRODUCTION SYSTEM OR ANY SYSTEM ACCESSIBLE VIA THE PUBLIC INTERNET. Installing the starting block on a production system presents a security risk.

Ha! Love the graphic, and thanks for pointing this out. I have fixed the link above and added the starting block to our external maven site so it won't be dependent upon the help system or the community site.

Thanks for fixing this so rapidly Scott. I shall now progress with my dev virtual environment, and no doubt inform you of any further Picard facepalm moments!

Indeed - interactive documentation could certainly be a great improvement. I still have the psychological scars resulting from trying to develop code based on details derived from the 2011 BB 9.1 Server Administration Guide.

It seems the link to "Blackboard Plug-In for Eclipse" (by Wiley Fuller) is no longer valid. I searched around for a copy, but as unsuccessful. Does anyone know if the plug-in is still available for download anywhere?

Hi there! I am new to Blackboard and am trying to setup a development environment using Vagrant based Virtual Machine and Eclispe.

So fast forward - set up virtual machine and eclipse completed. Now while using ANT to build and deploy (I am testing with B2-StarterKit), I received a BUILD FAILED (c:\blackboard\apps\tomcat\lib does not exist.). Can anyone help with this?

I am trying to set up a development environment with the Virtual Machine but do not have an administrator login. Is there another download location or somewhere a 3rd party developer can get the image?